Evidence-based practice
The Nelson Trust has been an initiator of many partnerships and has piloted innovative services in the fields of addiction, family therapy and work with women with complex needs. At the heart of our innovation always lies the learning from those we work with, listening to their needs, their strengths and their ambitions has always directed the work we do.
We follow our experience and models of good practice, we systematically monitor our work in order to celebrate clients’ progress but also to enable action-learning to happen from the bottom-up and improve our practice and services. This process is guided by our monitoring of key client outcomes, which enables us to check the progress clients make against our overall aim of supporting people affected by drug and/or alcohol addiction to recover and thrive in their communities.
We are able to map how our specific aims (such as improving clients’ understanding of patterns of addictive behaviour, developing their life skills, enabling them to create safety in their lives) are achieved by providing activities (provide counselling, psycho-educational activities, employability courses & parenting groups in a trauma and gender-responsive environment, & provide advocacy & 1-2-1 advice on housing, finances, domestic violence, etc.) which translate into outcomes by measuring key indicators (number of clients completing treatment drug and/or alcohol free, number of clients co-producing a care plan during treatment, number of clients accessing relevant interventions).